Hanging up the sign "GONE FLYING" for the next 4 weeks. 5000 miles across the ocean. Obviously out of my mind - although maybe not completely if you ever been to the Ocala Flying Model Club in Florida. Phoenix training will continue on the laptop.

Hi all! Just wanted to give first impressions from my first session with CapJac. Really enjoyed it, learned a lot on configuring Phoenix, hovering practice, radio setup, model setup, beginnings of autorotation, etc. Had a really great time, and have a lot to practice before next lesson. Highly recommend CapJac for training. Can't wait for next session. Thanks CapJac!

Hanging up the sign "GONE FLYING" for the next 4 weeks. 5000 miles across the ocean. Obviously out of my mind - although maybe not completely if you ever been to the Ocala Flying Model Club in Florida. Phoenix training will continue on the laptop.

Thanks for posting and positive feedback. Helps me to evaluate and adjust and recover - from the students hoping to 3D after a lesson or two. They aren't quite as positive. Trying to learn in a week what normally takes years - somehow just doesn't fly very well. Most of my students work really HARD - practice every day - and after 2 or 3 sessions it really shows!! One student was quite frustrated because he wasn't making the progress he wanted. We spent a little more time on the heli pad and after 4 sessions he's taken off and doing forward flight patterns. For those who gave up trying to fly - you might want to give it another try. Only difference between a teacher and a student is the teacher learned first. My students have taught me some pretty effective methods in the last few months. I wish I had known some of those techniques when I started!! Thanks again to everyone who has stayed the course. If you are in the neighborhood of Ocala the next few weeks - come on down!!

The real test of simulators is how you fly when there is no reset button and this last week I've been able to put simulator effectiveness to the test. How do simulators hours translate to the real world? Amazingly well!! The muscle "memory" developed from simulator flying are the same muscles used in the real world. The only real difference is distance perception with looking at a 2 dimensional screen on your computer versus the depth of field of 3 dimensions. Keep that simulator training going!!

I had my first lesson with CaptJack yesterday, so I thought i'd give people my first impressions.

Firstly, Jack seems like a great guy, he's friendly and relaxed, as was the tone of the session generally. Jack took me through the phoenix setup he recommends to learn with, which includes tweaking the model a little and making sure phoenix is correctly configured for your controller. This was really useful and has resulted in a heli which is manageable for a beginner, with sensible expo values and pitch etc. Jack is great at explaining what you're doing and why you're doing it, so you understand the reasoning behind the changes you're making.

We had an online session where Jack spectated on my heli flying, he can see your control inputs and can provide realtime feedback on what you're doing, as if you're both standing there at the field really. it's a powerful way to learn for those of us who aren't lucky enough to have a mentor at a local flying club. I can already hover to a limited degree so we moved quickly onto some exercises I could practice to help improve my control of the heli, and i'll be practicing these before we have our next session. Jack is flexible about what is appropriate for you, he'll soon have a grasp of your skill level and will concentrate on the areas which you need to work on.

To anyone who doesn't have phoenix yet, it is a really good sim, and when you combine this with the lessons Jack is offering, it makes buying it a no-brainer! The benefit of having someone who can fly giving you advice shouldn't be underestimated. That Jack does this for free, in his own time is amazing really, we're lucky to have such a generous guy willing to help out.

I think I might be interested in taking you up on your offer for instruction. I am familiar with SKYPE, and Gmail Video chat. I am new to RC Heli and I started with a cheep little co-axel from a toy store, I did this for 3 weeks and jumped into a Blade SR, little bit too much of a jump, so I down sized to the Blade MSR. After crashing and repairing the SR more time than I'd care to admit I got the Phoenix Sim. I'm doing much better now and have taken the training gear off the SR recently. I'm doing all this because I bought and rebuilt a used T-rex 450 that I would like to fly with hopefully few crashes.